No More Free DVC Valet Parking

Effective October 11th DVC members will not longer be able to valet park their vehicles for free at DVC resorts. It will cost $12 per day.

My biggest problem with this announcement is how it was communitcated. There was nothing posted to the DVC memeber website until today. The communication was poor. They could have given members some notice as well. Maybe announcing it now and telling members it would be discontinued on 1/1/2010 instead of immediately would have been better.

I'm trying to stay on topic, but it just seems lately that the price increases in everything at Disney seem to be adding up. I know goods and services have to go up in price, but why do the increases at Disney World have to come so often, so fast. I just realized today while looking at a possible 2010 Spring Break trip to Disney World that an adult dinner at Ohana will cost $37 (seasonal price increase). In my opinion, Ohana is not worth $37 per adult! I can think of a lot of offsite restaurants where I can get much, much better for much, much less.

I understand your frustration ADP. I have that same dilemma. When is it just good business and when do I feel like I'm being raked over the coals? It doesn't feel fair (can you tell I'm a Libra) yet I'm a sucka' at the same time.

I had two items that really bothered me:
1. the double-stroller price increase
2. When they changed the definition of child for tickets and food, from 3yrs -11 yrs and now it's 3yrs-9yrs.

I do understand that I can bring my own stroller or rent one from a company, just like DVC people can park their own cars it's just that I know what is used to be.

What it's meant for my family: My 9 year old turned 10 and it's is quite a bit more expensive, so, we can't go as often. However, we will go again at some point...hence the SUCKA'

I think that Disney has somethign going for it that other companies dont... I think they keep track of real inflation numbers on their own and try to always stay ahead of the curve. So when the price of your goods at the grocery stores go up 10% and Gas goes up 60% Disney doesnt take Gov. Numbers of 2-4% and price accordingly. I think they employ their own economists and crunch real numbers to adjust their prices.

I think it is smart on their part... but it ends up making them look more greedy than they are... and lets face it... they are already pretty greedy.

As a DVC member, I'm wondering how much additional $$ they will make on this policy change vs. the bad press. First, how often do DVC members go to a resorts where this benefit would be useful? Second, how many DVC members actually used the free valet parking? I know I rarely go to the DVc resorts where I could use it and, when i do, I just self=park because I hate waiting for the valet to get the car.

As a DVC member, I'm wondering how much additional $$ they will make on this policy change vs. the bad press. First, how often do DVC members go to a resorts where this benefit would be useful? Second, how many DVC members actually used the free valet parking? I know I rarely go to the DVc resorts where I could use it and, when i do, I just self=park because I hate waiting for the valet to get the car.

When we stay at the BWV we used the valet. The self parking lot is far, especially with all the stuff we have checking in. With luggage, carry-ons and some groceries, it was so much easier to just drive up & valet. Plus if you are coming back late to the resort, it was almost impossible to find a spot. (Especially around Illuminations time ) It was definately a great perk for that resort. I think we used it once for VWL b/c we were late for a dinner ADR.

I know there were a lot of complaints from DVC owners over on dvcnews.com about this. Apparently quite a lot of people use the valet.

OKW has plenty of parking at each building and that's my home DVC resort so it's the one I'm most familiar with. WIll be staying at AKL Kidani Village this coming January for the first time so not sure what the parking situation will be there. All of Boardwalk's parking is a decent distance from the boardwalk - even handicapped. I rarely go there because I don't find much there interesting.

If I were a DVC owner, I'd be upset. I'm sure your annual dues are going up year after year and when they take away a perk, it's a slap in your face.

To me this is the underlying point to all of this. Disney is raising prices continuously and taking away service while raising prices puts on a horrible face... now one could argue that they are not raising prices... with things like buy 4 get 3 and free dining some people are doing disney cheaper than ever before...

So what are they really doing... what they really do best. Squeezing their loyal customers and rewarding the rest of the massess... You can't squeeze the massess because they won't come... but us... they could just swipe my card on entry and max it and odds are I would smile and enjoy the ride...